A method used by many British Indian restaurants to speed up the process of making curry. This curry base gravy can be used for many different types of curry to give a luscious sauce and an instant hit of flavour.
Store this curry base in portions and if you use ready-cooked chicken, you can have any number of curries on the table in 10 minutes!
I usually make most of my curry sauces from scratch, but I’ve been aware of the ‘base curry sauce gravy method’ for a while.
It’s a bit of secret in many British Indian Restaurants that a big pan of curry base gravy/sauce is always on the go to seriously speed up the process of making the high number of curries that go out the door.
Lots of you were asking on my YouTube channel for me to try the curry base gravy method. So I’ve been busy testing it out and refining it. And I’ve got to say, I love it! This curry base works.
I even did a taste and timing test using my original Chicken Jalfrezi recipe, and found that I could reduce the time it takes to make the jalfrezi from 30 minutes, down to 14 minutes!
I’ve included the recipe for the quick jalfrezi in the recipe notes sections of the recipe card.
📋 What do we need?
🔪 How to make this Indian Base Gravy
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Heat plenty of oil in a large casserole pan, then add in 6 roughly chopped onions. Cook for about 20 minutes, over a medium heat, until softened.
- Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, ground coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cardamom and tomato puree and stir together.
- Add chopped red and green bell pepper, chopped carrot and a tin of chopped tomatoes.
- Stir and bring to the boil, then simmer for 1 hour.
- Turn off the heat, leave to cool slightly, then carefully blend using a stick blender.
👩🍳PRO TIP Once cooled, you can separate it into portions and freeze, so you can whip up a curry in extra quick time!
Personally, I think it tastes so good, you could serve it as a soup. Perhaps with some garlic naan for dipping!
🍽️ How to use it
These are the steps I take when converting a regular curry recipe to one that uses a curry base. I haven’t tested all of my curries yet of course, but this is what i’d do:
- Take a look at the recipe ingredients and figure out what the key spices in it are. Then compare that list of spices to the spices that are in the curry base.
- If any of those spices are already in the curry base, then halve the amount to use in your recipe.
- If any spices in your recipe don’t appear in the curry base, then add them in as per the recipe.
- You generally won’t need to add ginger, garlic, stock or tinned tomatoes or salt to your curry – as the curry base already as that in (unless the recipe calls for a lot of something – like garlic or tomatoes).
- Continue to add the other ingredients that appear in your curry recipe – such as chillies, vegetables and tomato puree (tomato puree appears in the curry base, but there’s only a small amount, so add the full amount of tomato puree that the recipes calls for).
- If the recipes calls for coconut milk, cream or yogurt, I would still use it, but you may need a little less – otherwise you may end up with too much liquid after adding the curry base.
- I would usually add the curry base once the meat, vegetables and spices are cooked – then you only need to simmer for 5 minutes or so.
You can check out my recipe video to see how a chicken jalfrezi using my regular recipe compares to my adapted recipe with the curry base. I do a taste test at the end of the video.
Here’s a sneak peek of how they look.
This is the Chicken Jalfrezi using the base gravy:
This is the jalfrezi using my regular recipe:
So the question is, do you want me to share more quick curries with you that use the curry base gravy method?
Let me know in the comments below.
📺 Watch how to make it
🍲 More fantastic Curries
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Curry Base Gravy
Ingredients
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) sunflower oil
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) onions about 6 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 8 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 2 tbsp minced ginger
- 2 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tbsp tomato puree paste for US
- 1 red bell pepper roughly chopped
- 1 green bell pepper roughly chopped
- 1 medium carrot peeled and chopped
- 400 g (14 oz) tinned chopped tomatoes
- 2 litres (8 1/3 cups) chicken or vegetable stock (water plus 4 stock cubes is fine)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large casserole pan over a medium heat.120 ml (1/2 cup) sunflower oil
- Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes, until they start to brown and caramelise slightly.1 kg (2.2 lbs) onions
- Add the garlic, minced ginger, garam masala, coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, salt, black pepper, ground cardamom, and tomato puree.8 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp minced ginger, 2 tbsp garam masala, 2 tbsp ground coriander, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp paprika, 1 ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp ground cardamom, 2 tbsp tomato puree
- Stir to coat the onion and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the red pepper, green pepper, carrot, tinned tomatoes, and stock.1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 medium carrot, 400 g (14 oz) tinned chopped tomatoes, 2 litres (8 1/3 cups) chicken or vegetable stock
- Bring to the boil, then simmer for 1 hour.
- Turn off the heat, allow to cool, then blitz to a smooth liquid using a stick blender.
Video
Notes
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 onion, peeled and sliced
- 1 red chilli sliced
- 1 green chilli sliced
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 green bell pepper sliced
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp turmeric
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 480ml (2 cups) curry base gravy
- Small bunch chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
- Fresh coriander and chilli flakes to serve
- Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan and add the chicken and onion. Cook on a high heat for 4-5 minutes until the chicken is sealed.
- Add the red and green chilli and the red and green bell peppers and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Add in the garam masala, turmeric, salt, cumin, ground coriander and tomato puree. Stir to coat the chicken and peppers, and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Add in 480ml (2 cups) of curry base.
- Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce is thickened and the chicken is cooked through.
- Stir in the fresh coriander and serve with pilau rice, topped with fresh coriander and a few chilli flakes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Hi Nicky, I would first like to thank you for your amazing videos. I have recently retired and have now got a real passion for cooking. I particularly like curries and Chinese recipes. I have made a few batches of the base curry sauce now from different websites and books but yours is by far the best tasting and easiest to follow. I would really like to see you making more curries now using the base sauce. However I made your Chicken Tikka Masala the other night and my wife was very impressed.. I hope you get chance to try some out but in the meantime keep up the good work and thank you for making cooking so enjoyable. Many thanks. Simon
Made some yesterday. It’s amazing. The closest I’ve ever made to southern Indian cooking. Are there any other recipes where I could use this gravy, especially lmb dishes. Thank you for this great recipe, we love it.
Hi Nicky.
Great recipes.
Can you give a recipe using this Gravy for a Lamb Dopiaza please.
Hi Nicky again. I normally make a curry for 4, eat 2 and freeze the rest down. Will this work with defrosted Curry Base.
Hi Nicky. Looks good, will definitely try. Just a quickie. Your Jalfrezi recicipe calls fr the chicken to me marinated, the Base Curry doesnt. Is there a reason. John B
Hi Nicky,
My attempts at home made curry always taste somehow ‘empty’ and don’t really match up to the occasional Saturday night treat from our local takeaway! Perhaps the missing magic dust is this base gravy ?
Would love to see your version of a chicken vindaloo using the base gravy method
Greatest site ! Love your recipes and tips – keep up the fabulous work
I’m excited to try this and I’d definitely love to see the different curries you could make with this base. In our house we are big fans of a spicy korma, lababdar and chasni (nudge nudge, wink wink) but i’ve never been able to find recipes that replicate our Indian take away. Perhaps it’s down to the sauce base they use!
Could this be used to make a soup?
Look forward to see what you do next!
Hi, I love your curry recipes, I have tried the Dhansak and the chicken Biriani. I live in MN, USA and emigrated from the UK years ago. Being able to create Indian curry in my home kitchen in Minnesota has been very exciting and the two recipes I have cooked turned out to be delicious. Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to making the curry base. And would definately love you to expand your curry recipe section using the base curry. Thanks again, you were a great find for me. I will be trying many of your British recipes that I have been missing. (Meat pies especially)!
Nicky, this is a really useful recipe. Catering for 3 generations (I’m stay-at-home grandma /mum) while the other 2 are working varied shifts means that a healthy sauce like this can whizz something up on demand. I will make my own adaptations/additions for flavouring, but this is magic! Much appreciated. Keep up the amazing work that you do.
Hi curry gravy base sounds great, the only problem I have is my hubby can’t eat any capsicums, would it affect the flavour if I just left them out, or do you have any suggestions as to alternatives..Thanks
Hi Chris, Yes, it will affect the flavour a little, but I would just replace with an extra carrot and maybe a chopped courgette (zucchini) – this should help replace the sweetness and the bulk of those peppers in the recipe.